Birds in Hell wrote: Thu September 03, 2026 9:34 am
You've been digging the Polvo records, so I thought you might enjoy Unwound.
They're both kind of "post-Sonic Youth" bands, at least in my mind.
But I guess Unwound are bit more shouty.
Then again, you weren't nuts for Spiderland either, so who knows!
I will keep recommending a few more Unwound records, there's definitely progression in their songwriting throughout the 90s.
I worked with Sarah Lund a little bit in Portland in the early aughts, and this girls rock camp I volunteered at. She was a good egg and a HELL of a drummer.
How was her snare sound?
It wasn't her kit so I wouldn't hold it against her.
Ha! So no good.
I think you and I have similar likes as far as that goes.
Let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing!
- C. Montgomery Burns
For the first half of this album, these folks seemed so straightforward it was nearly bland. Definitely good enough but not something that would set off any bells. They found their groove much more in the second half, where Jaime’s Got a Gal, and the stripped down Ordinary create much more flavor. The top of their game was reserved for the end with You Scare Me, Off the Field, and Sound As Ever, all magnificent tracks that make you wonder where they were for the first half hour. Ended up enjoying those last tracks quite a bit.
Other than their famous cover of Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon from Pulp Fiction, I had no real background on this band coming in - even though I liked that cover in the 90s. I also had heard good things about them over the years from friends but never dove in. This album, and my first real dive in, is an excellent rock record. Sister Havana is a worthy single, Tequila Sundae, Positive Bleeding, Back On Me, Erica Kane, and Nite and Grey are all highlights here as well. Glad this was recommended.
While there were moments here when I wasn’t so sure, I ended up really enjoying this album. It seems caught somewhere in between a Big Star/R.E.M. jangle pop and the alternative rock of the day in 1993, and for the most part this sound really works. The Cabbage, Radio, Escher, Commercial Alternative, and Gene Clark are all truly essential tracks, and then add the fun Get Funky and Norman 3 and you have yourself an excellent album. Not all the songs hit for me but the ones that did really hit.
The Essential Track: Gene Clark (I mean nearly a Neil Yoing Dirge happening here!)
This sparked memories of just how much I enjoyed listening to Tom Verlaine play guitar on Marquee Moon and Adventure - two albums that still sit in my top 100. But with this instrumental album, I also was stunned by Billy Ficca’s drumming, which I didn’t know or remember he was in Television. Both are phenomenal here. Naturally the first part of this album stuck the most, but this was good front to back so long as you are calibrated for an instrumental album of course. Good suggestion here.
With Curt Smith out and this being solely the other guy, should this be Tears or Fears? Or maybe Tear For Fear? In any event, I actually have to concede this album is pretty good anyway. The top three songs here, Elemental, Cold, and Break It Down Again are down the barrel good pop songs in the vein of this group. Fish Out of Water and Goodnight Song are also highlights, so we get at least half this thing worth hanging around for. I guess despite the lack of the duo, this still hits.
With Curt Smith out and this being solely the other guy, should this be Tears or Fears? Or maybe Tear For Fear? In any event, I actually have to concede this album is pretty good anyway. The top three songs here, Elemental, Cold, and Break It Down Again are down the barrel good pop songs in the vein of this group. Fish Out of Water and Goodnight Song are also highlights, so we get at least half this thing worth hanging around for. I guess despite the lack of the duo, this still hits.
The Essential Track: Break It Down Again
Up Next: U2 - Zooropa
killer album. I hate that it gets an asterisk because it's one of the best in their catalog.
This feels to me like the natural successor to Achtung Baby. It, I don’t think, reached those heights, but very little will. This one pushes the band more into electronic territory, and while it won’t feel like the full scale conversion that Pop will almost feel like, it demands much more of the listener to climb on board than that famous predecessor. Zooropa, Babyface, Numb, Lemon, Stay (Faraway So Close), Some Days Are Better Than Others, Dirty Day, and the Wanderer were my favorites here - and this is a large range in sound that shows how far they have come from their New Years announcement that they’d come back a different band at the close of the Rattle and Hum tour (if I remember correctly).
At first blush, perhaps this is the opposite of a gentleman. I mean, this album is basically the gritty, primal, gut reactions to a failing relationship. Hell, it even brought me back to the last time I had a relationship collapse. That’s some powerful stuff to dredge up and it speaks to the impact of this album. My cursory guess is that this is all sort of happening to the narrator internally as they struggle to keep it all together, which may be something gentlemen might do if the existential horrors were being faced internally while outwardly showing a good face. Either way, the album here is rock solid and full of great songs, the sort that deal in this turmoil while what appear to be incidental instruments actually serve to add significantly to the beauty of the songs - cellos and pianos and such not played by the core band but play integral roles in provide some sort of almost grounding to a deep deep hole. I enjoyed probably three quarters of this outright, but the two favorites here were Debonair, and Fountain and Fairfax. They make this point as well as any of the songs here for me.
The Essential Track: Debonair
Up Next: A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders
Time for another quick hip hop run. Tribe continue here to be top of the mountain here. This is full of funky hooks, and even as this seems a bit heavier and darker, it still has a great sense of humor. I really can’t find a real fault with this one either, even if as a whole, it’s no Low End Theory, though I am not sure what can be. As I listened to this, I realized how much the early aughts hip hop artists were influenced by this sound. Still so so good.
It feels like I might have a familiarity bias with this one. Probably the hip hop album I have heard the most times, and always seemed to me almost like the Appetite for Destruction of hip hop album, and I am not 100% sure why. It just felt like a revolution when I first heard it, and it just stayed with me. Insane in the Brain is my freshman high school anthem, and I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That, What Go Around Come Around Kid, A to the K, and Break Em Off Some are just classics to me. Then in the aughts I connected more with the songs celebrating a certain herb. This one just never got old to me.
This might be a bit of a raunch-fest, but it’s a fun raunch. Wherein gansta rap often feels too intense and heavy for me most of the time, this album just feels like Snoop is smirking and cracking up the whole time, a levity the sub-genre really kind of needs. His sampling of Parliament is really well done here as well, adding a funkiness to that levity. It’s pretty uneven and the narratives get old fast, but sometimes a fun ride is just that.
We still have about a dozen albums left in ‘93 (a lot of albums from that year). We’ll start thinking about ‘94, which for me will have some real contenders to knock off that album that’s been sitting in the top spot for quite a while. Here’s what I have so far:
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Sausage - The Riddles Are Abound Tonight
The Breeders - Head to Toe
The Gits - Enter: The Conquering Chicken
Beck - Mellow Gold
Ween - Chocolate and Cheese
Reverend Horton Heat - Liquor in the Front
Phish - Hoist
Blues Traveler - Four
Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
The Black Crowes - Amorica
Dinosaur Jr. - Without a Sound
Weezer
Green Day - Dookie
Sublime - Robbin’ the Hood
Blur - Parklife
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
R.E.M. - Monster
Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
Live - Throwing Copper
Bush - Sixteen Stone
Sponge - Rotting Piñata
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Rolling Stones - Voodoo Lounge
Allman Brothers Band - Where It All Begins
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Neil Young - Sleeps With Angels
Tom Petty - Wildflowers
Ben Harper - Fight For Your Mind
Alice In Chains - Jar of Flies
Pearl Jam - Vitalogy
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Sonic Youth - Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star
Sugar - File Under Easy Listening
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
